I have been lucky enough to get four months off work and plan to use it to travel in South America with my girlfriend. Before anyone suggests as much; yes, the entire trip will be financed by returning with a large consignment of hard drugs.

We would like to visit Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and southern coastal strip of Brazil in about that order of time bias and priority. If time allows we might also take in Paraguay, Uruguay and Ecuador (but aware the other countries are already big enough for a lifetime!)

We are into the outdoors (particularly some multi-day walks), cities and basically just enjoying some very different experiences in a place we have never been.

The only issue with this great opportunity is that we have not planned a thing yet and we plan to leave within two weeks. Sooo, looking for some STW magic to help plan the trip.

Any suggestions appreciated including:

– Suggestions of places that are small but unmissable
– Suggestions of places that are famous but not worth bothering with
– The item we really should pack/the item we really should leave behind
– Places to stay as in individual hotels, hostels, campsites. We are easy on ‘standard’ but love interesting
– How to move around! Should we go for buses, hire a car, buy a car or buy motorbikes
– The thing you know now you wish you knew before you went to South America
– Where should we start it all; no flight booked yet. Should we go for the cheapest one-way we can find or book a better carrier at a reasonable price eg. BA return and plan on paying some sort of change fee for the return.
– Views on Machu Picchu. Unmissable? How to get there, some people seem to have loved a long trek there and back whilst others say just visit and trek somewhere else..

This all sounds pretty clueless – we are not honest! But have been hard pressed for time lately and looking to soak up as much information as soon as possible to establish a degree of plan whilst also keeping it flexible once we get there.

Thanks all.

I did a ‘mountain biking’ tour in Peru and Bolivia.
The mountain biking tour part was shit frankly. About 95% road riding and Peruvian bus drivers don’t give you much respect. Thanks Red Spokes…. 😐
Definitely only recommend the trip to road riders.

I did a shortish hike to Macchu Picchu. I mean it was just incredible and insane, but undoubtedly the sheer volume of people there takes the edge off somewhat.

Cusco is pretty cool and Oliantaytambo (sp)

La Paz in Bolivia was kind of mental too. Interesting to look about but ultimately I fancied getting away from people a bit more.

Went to lake Titicaca and visited the reed islands. Pretty amazing.

I mean, a lot of these places are touristy, but then for a reason.

Learn some Spanish, it will make your time there a lot easier and more interesting at the same time.

Bolivia is astonishing, astoundingly beautiful, but also culturally fascinating. La Paz is my favourite city in the world. Lima, Quito and Bogota could be anywhere, but the combination of indigenous people on the streets, the situation of the city and the views of Illimano from the middle of town are quite special.

The Salar de Uyuni salt lakes are worth a visit. Cuzco manages to be both a tourist trap and a must see.

Machu Picchu I think, probably depends on what you’re after. We walked the Inca Trail after climbing a bunch of 6000m peaks, so it seemed quite tame as a walk, but it has the big plus of allowing you to get to the ruins before the masses arrive by train in the morning.

You have to pre-book the trek these days, so it may not even be an option. But it is a fascinating place, though it seemed smaller in reality than it looked in the photos.

Ecuador’s a funny one. It’s relatively small by South American standards, but has a little bit of everything ranging from Andean volcanoes through to Amazonian jungle. If you want to climb a mountain, Cotopaxi is a good choice – looks like a kid’s drawing of a perfect volcano, technically straightforward from a refugio at around 4,800m I think, and lots of guided trips available.

You don’t mention it, but I thought Colombia was extraordinary, though I can see why people are wary of travelling there.

There’s so much to see there. But honestly, some basic Spanish will really pay dividends.

Sorry to hear about the Peru riding, no help to you now but I have been a number of places with Sacred Rides and thought their Peru trip looked good.

Your Macchu Picchu thoughts back mine up at present; I want to go but with the benefit of time to trek elsewhere I think we might look to keep it short there and trek elsewhere.

Thanks for the other mentions. After a hefty shift at work I am first off looking for some getaway credentials but definitely up for heading to mental La Paz at a point 🙂 I want to ride the city cable car.

Agree on the touristy – there are few places that are unheard of! Not expecting to break any new ground as an explorer 🙂

Only done Peru, but hiking to macchu Picchu, is great way to do it as you get there by sunrise. You can still do a 1 day trek that avoids the crowds.

Flight over the nazca lines was good, nazca itself was bit of a dump but we stayed in Hotel Alegria which was a great refuge & very helpful staff, (I left my passport there & they were incredibly helpful)
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g304044-d318213-Reviews-Hotel_Alegria-Nazca_Ica_Region.html

Lake Titicaca , we stayed on a proper island with some locals, was great way to see the place, but playing football at 4000m Vs local kids was a lesson.

Cuzco is great, & Inca ruins above it
Lima is crazy (watch out for dodgy taxis – getting air off speedbumps looks cool on films, painful in the back of an old Merc)

Colca canyon a bit shit

Arequipa was great, beautiful colonial city, we missed out on mtbing the volcano, coz of a holiday.

Learn some Spanish, check the guide books, internal travel by luxury bus was pretty economical, you can do O/N in reclining seats, Coco tea is great, get hotels/hostels to book your transfers

I’d definitely recommend Patagonia, particularly El Chalten. It was 12 years ago that I was there but it’s a great place for walking and climbing, just at the foot of Fitzroy.

I went to Colombia for 2 months, Argentina Brazil and Venezuela for a further 2. All amazing . Colombia is like 4 countries in one, although the food was appalling. The north and into Venezuela is a tropical paradise, unreal. Argentina had the nicest people I thought, very cool. You’ll massively enjoy it whatever. I should have gone to Bolivia but I was having a great time with a German girl in Colombia. Good times

Can only speak of Brazil and Argentina. I really like the south of Brazil, Florianópolis is a nice city with something for everyone, I’d like to visit some other cities such as Blumenau or Curtiba. I’d steer clear of Porto Alegria as even the locals said it was becoming more dangerous. If you can get to Rio for Carnaval or even the build up to carnaval do it! Just insane! But you’ll pay a lot for accommodation unless you camp on the beach.

What I’d do differently
Pack light
Learn directions etc in Spanish/Portuguese, no point knowing how to order a beer if you can’t find the bar!
Pousada is Portuguese for B&B
Take a warm jumper on overnight buses or planes.
Take 2 x currency cards such as Caxton fx
Don’t take your Rolex or iPhone X
Dual sim phone might be useful.
Every major city or town will have a “Ingles in Rio” type group on Facebook they’ll be beyond friendly.
Take suncresm it’s cheaper here.

Climb Dois Irmãos for sunrise if you make it to Rio.

OP – what time of year?

Learn some Spanish for sure. Amazonas Explorer do some very good MTB trips out of Cusco. Binned off Machu to ride and very glad I did.

Norwegian air start flying to argentina from london mid feb.

All amazing . Colombia is like 4 countries in one, although the food was appalling.

The only place in the world where i’ve been served popcorn as a vegetable. And don’t get me started on the deep-fried ants. And oddly the coffee there was straight-up awful. Apparently they export all the good stuff and the locals are left drinking what’s called ‘tinto’ which is nasty instant coffee served black – shudder…

Apparently there are now decent local coffee shops appearing though.

Did three months 10 years ago.
Bolivia, peru and ecuador in that order
That was enough.
But obvious extension would be chile and then argentina.
We took tents and did as much walking as we could which was best part for me.
I always like having an expedition as part of a long trip.
I walked up cotopaxi with a guide, while my mate had the squits.
Sorata for mtb and ride the longest descent in world in bolivia ?
Can echo a lot of suggestions of must does as abive –
Having a delayed xmas day with inlaws but can send something longer when i get to a proper computer.
Get learning spanish is number one suggestion, or go to spanish school when you get there as a starter.
I did in a placed called sucre.
Happy to chat on phone as needed.
But my info is 10 years old..
I had similar questions and posted on outdoormagic forum, does that still exist ?
Cheers
Jerome

Wow, this is all really useful! Keep it coming.

How did people tend to move around? Buses and other public transport? Did anyone buy a vehicle? On recent holidays in New Zealand and Norway I have loved the flexibility and ability to do more that a hire car gives you. In those places I have tended to use rent a banger type outfits but we haven’t managed to find those for South America yet (probably a reminder about learning Spanish). Hiring a Hertz/Europcar for the whole time is not going to work financially. I am also aware that by wrapping ourselves in a car we might miss out on a lot of the interaction that comes from using public transport.

I used to live in Bolivia – it’s a fantastic place to explore. I worked out and about in the middle of nowhere and had a (old BJ type) landcruiser myself for private travel so I was able to explore really remote places BUT car ownership there wasn’t particularly easy or cheap. And that’s just Bolivia. Crossing borders in a private car can be difficult in terms of paperwork, insurance, etc. . Within Bolivia, many roads to the places I wanted to go were pretty bad so you need to be self sufficient (I had to repair my own punctures, etc) and you needed to be able to deal with the police and other drivers if something went wrong. This was a while ago and things will have moved on but if I was returning to Bolivia I would use (the mainly excellent) busses between cities and then whatever was most suitable (taxi, minibuses, lorries, hire, etc) to explore.

I’m not saying don’t do it – just that it won’t be simple.

Peru at least, use the cheaper coaches the locals use, not Cruz Del Sur etc that are full of tourists and get targeted by bandits. Love that word!

Out of Nazca we got coach jacked and whole coach turned over at gun point by a gang in middle of a desert road.

A great story now but not good at the time.

Don’t be put off, i envy you!

Though given the chance I’d spend a few months in India instead if I could. Life changing.

Oh most important!

You can’t take a dump on the coaches and if you get off at a stop to use a toilet they won’t have toilet roll, take your own.

I had a bad stomach on a 9 hour coach trip and had the coach attendant listening outside for farts as I was having to take sneaky dumps. No choice! Lol

He told me off a couple of times as I left the toilet. 😀

Really depends on time of year. If this trip is fairly soon (say, Feb to May) you will have the latter half of the summer and enough time to get down to the bottom of Argentina and Chile. If timing is more of a Northern Hemisphere summer then Patagonia becomes more difficult.

Everyone discounts Uruguay but it’s my favourite South American country (having spent 4 years of my twenties in South America over 3 separate occasions). Amazing road trip/vineyard/partying country. Especially in Jan and Feb.

There’s so much to do you really have to focus in on what you enjoy doing and don’t try to rush it. Travelling can be slow and you always want to stay in places longer than you thought so if you are too ambitious with your schedule you won’t get the best of it.

I think it it was me I would do something like this (but again very time of year dependant):

– fly into Buenos Aires and spend 4 days there
– Buquebus over to Colonia del Sacramento. A night there then road trip staying at vineyards and end up in Punta del Este
– back to BsAs and then from there flight to Salta – couple of days in the city then a few days in an Estancia
– from there to Mendoza, then Bariloche, then El Calafate (for Moreno glacier) then Ushuaia
– from there into Chile, Tierra del Fuego then up through the lakes to Santiago, via he Casa Silva vineyard for a night
– couple of days respite in Santiago (including the bike city tour thing which is immense)
– up through the Atalanta desert to the salt lakes and into Bolivia
– from there to Lake Titicaca via La Paz
– into Peru and the Inca Trail via Cusco
– into Lima and then a flight to São Paulo
– pick up a car and drove to Rio via Maresias and Ilha Grande
– few days in Rio and Buzios before flight home.

That’s probably realistic for 4 months as a rough outline. There’s a million other ways of doing it though and many many more places to see.

Bottom end of Chile and Argentina for sure, or to skim the area do the lakes tourist route to bariloche (rapa nui chocolate shop cafe). Conguillo national Park on your way back north for some spectacular landscapes. Pucon if you want a chance (weather dependent) to climb an active volcano but it’s pretty much a one trick town without much else to hold your attention.

Santiago human rights museum is a sobering visit as it tells the story of the coup, but it does leave a lot unanswered if you dig around the subject (not in a jhj way).

Also fwiw pre pay credit cards are hit and miss in parts of S America so don’t rely solely on Monzo or Revolut.